Gander Mountain in Rockford Won’t Take Your Gift Cards

By now you probably know Gander Mountain in Rockford is closing. The company has declared bankruptcy and is in the process of liquidizing all store merchandise. What you may not know is that they are  no longer accepting Gander Mountain gift cards either. Dirty.

One of my favorite things to do is hoard gift cards (and Menards rebate checks) for something really special. Apparently, an 11-year-old from Rockford does the same thing with his Gander Mountain loot, but sadly his story will not end with a tackle box full of new goodies.

13 WREX recently shared the story of Drew Steffen, an 11-year-old who has been saving up $140 in Gander Mountain gift cards to use towards new fishing supplies. Upon hearing the news of Gander Mountain's closing, Drew's Dad called Rockford's store to ask what to do about their gift cards.  Primarily he wanted to know if they couldn't find merchandise they wanted, would they refund the gift card amount for cash. The answer he got was not expected. Here's what he told WREX;

"I called the store, I got a gentleman on the phone and explained to him what are we supposed to do with the cards, if we can't find merchandise in the store that we want, do we get money back? He said not only do you not get money back, we stop accepting the gift cards,

Say what?!? I thought gift cards couldn't expire and had to be accepted for at least 5 years? Turns out, companies can refuse and "devalue" their gift cards under "special circumstances".

Rockford Better Business Bureau Director Dennis Horton told 13 News that:

"Because the store is closing, those don't always apply, so you're sort of left to your own devices to figure out how you're going to redeem the value of that gift card,

Dirty. You can take the company to court if you really want to, but basically, if you are holding onto Gander Mountain gift cards hoping to get the most bang for your buck, sorry Charlie, you are out of luck. The company stopped accepting them anywhere as of May 17, 2017.

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